NYS Music 202​0

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  • Flashback: August 23, 1983 – Iron Maiden, Fastway and Coney Hatch perform at Glens Falls Civic Center

    For headliners Iron Maiden, this was the ‘World Piece’ tour, supporting fourth album Piece of Mind.  Posters for this gig at Glens Falls Civic Center on August 23, 1983, labeled the show as “The British Metal Onslaught,” which made more sense in weeks preceding the show, when the bill had been Brits Iron Maiden and Saxon, with Fastway opening.  By the time of this show, Saxon had left the tour, and while Iron Maiden are the quintessential British metal band, Fastway were half-British, half-Irish, and Coney Hatch were from Canada.

    iron maiden world piece

    Opening band Coney Hatch were cool – they got a good reaction from the crowd, but outside of their native Canada they were not well-known, and this may have been their only visit to New York State.

    iron maiden world piece

    Fastway were great – the song “Say What You Will” was all over the radio at this time. Their then-current first album rocked and of course the band featured guitarist Fast Eddie Clarke from Motorhead, drummer Jerry Shirley from Humble Pie, bassist Charlie McKracken from Rory Gallagher’s Irish trio TASTE, and then-teenaged Irish singer Dave King, who would go on years later (and still currently does) front Irish punk powerhouse Flogging Molly.

    Fastway were excellent but Maiden were the kings that night. How can you argue with “Where Eagles Dare,” “Sanctuary” and “Wrathchild” as the first 3 songs? They were at their peak, playing like heroes and were greeted as such by the sold-out Glens Falls crowd. 

    Highlights included when a giant lobotomized version of Maiden mascot Eddie invaded the stage during “Iron Maiden,” and when Bruce Dickinson made a long speech dissing author Frank Herbert before “To Tame A Land.” The band had asked permission to title the song “Dune,” after Herbert’s sci-fi novel, but the author had said no, and Bruce, as reward, got the entire crowd to chant “Fuck Frank Herbert.”  The band played a many Piece of Mind songs – an album which has aged pretty well, lo these almost 40 years since. The encore was then-hit “Run To The Hills,” and this was the last tour they played ‘Killers’-era classic “Drifter” (and the “eyo, eyo, eyo” sing-along), which ended the show.

    Setlist: Intro/Where Eagles Dare, Sanctuary, Wrathchild, The Trooper, Revelations, Flight of Icarus, Die With Your Boots On, 22 Acacia Avenue, The Number of the Beast, To Tame a Land/solos, Phantom of the Opera, Hallowed Be Thy Name, Iron Maiden

    Encore: Run to the Hills, Drifter

  • Acclaimed Record Producer Ian Brennan to Release Inspiring Album “Who You Calling Slow?”

    Grammy award-winning music producer and lauded field-recording trailblazer Ian Brennan will release his most personal album to date featuring the Sheltered Workshop Singers’ debut album, “Who You Calling Slow?”, on Friday, September 18.

    Brennan is renowned for scouring the world in musically underrepresented regions to document singers in an uninhibited, authentic fashion. His most acclaimed recordings include artists such as Tinariwen, Zomba Prison Project, and Malawi Mouse Boys. Brennan’s latest project “Who You Calling Slow?” brings him closest to home as he collaborates for the first time with his older sister, Jane — who has Down syndrome — along with her fellow workshop companions at a Bay Area adult-care facility. 

    Ian Brennan

    With Brennan’s father on hand for this cherished experience as he battled stage-four cancer (and ultimately passed just two months after the recording was complete), an unparalleled recording session took place that the world now has the privilege to hear. A diverse group of over 20 people participated in “Who You Calling Slow?,” ranging in age from early-twenties to sixties. Many of them had disabilities and no one had sung before into a microphone or attempted to play a stringed instrument.

    While Brennan enters each recording project prepared not to release it, a moment of miraculous epiphany came to light when Janet began singing “I’m not afraid of anything” from her wheelchair. The album expresses the hurt, love, and bravery of these sheltered workshop companions.

    Speaking about “Who You Calling Slow?” Brennan shares how his sister inspired him to make this album:

    Growing up, I’d witnessed my sister’s discomfort — eyes steered down sideways and hard, unable to contain her oversized tongue due to the shame — too many times to not remain vigilant and braced for a lifetime. I had little option but to make the right choice: to always side with those marginalized. Jane was diagnosed as ‘severely retarded,’ just one step above the lowest denomination of catatonic and mute. Our main connection was through music — joy expressed through dance, sadness and longing with melody. As her level of functioning has begun to diminish markedly in recent years, I knew the time was now or never to capture moments where music speaks volumes.

  • SummerStage Jubilee Benefit Announced by the City Parks Foundations

    SummerStage Jubilee was announced by City Parks Foundations to benefit free programming in the park. The benefit will take place on September 17, 2020 at 8PM across different virtual platforms. The benefit will include performances from big names like Sting, Norah Jones, and Trey Anastasio and an appearance from Billie Jean King.

    The 2020 SummerStage Jubilee Benefit Concert will help support the free parks programs and ensure they can continue. The City Parks Foundation is the largest presenter of free arts and cultural programs in New York City parks. They serve 300,000 New Yorkers each year through arts, education, sports and community building initiatives. The fundraising being done through the SummerStage Jubilee event will help fund free tennis and golf instruction, experiential, science-based lessons, buying tools and bulbs for volunteers to beautify local parks, providing training, microgrants, and coaching to facilitate their local advocacy. Donations will also help ensure SummerStage, New York City’s largest free music festival, and SummerStage Anywhere, its virtual festival, will remain free and available to all New Yorkers. At a time when public programs have been upended, destroyed, and cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, the city’s parks have remained open as some of the only public assets available to all still in these trying times. 

     David Barse, City Parks Foundation Board Chairman spoke about the SummerStage Jubilee Benefit Concert saying,  “This benefit concert will help support the important work that the City Parks Foundation does in every community, park and green space we serve in New York City. Although the concert is free, as is our usual SummerStage festival, we hope that viewers will feel motivated to support our work and make donations to keep that work going during these challenging times.”

    The benefit will last an hour and will highlight the various City Parks Foundation programs. SummerStage Jubilee will feature musical performances by Sting, Norah Jones, Trey Anastasio, Rufus Wainwright, Leslie Odom Jr., Rosanne Cash, Emily King, PJ Morton and others to be announced on top of notable advocates for CPF’s work including tennis icon BillieJean King.

    https://youtu.be/BQE9IqKPMAA

    The benefit festival can be viewed  across all SummerStage social platforms (Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Twitch) via live stream on Thursday, September 17 at 8PM EST. Donations can be made on the SummerStage website.

    For more information on the event visit the City Park Foundations website.

  • Discover Local Music With EQXposure Featured Artists Including Cassandra Kubinski and More

    Each Sunday evening from 7-9pm on 102.7 FM, you’ll find EQXposure on WEQX, featuring two hours of local music from up and coming artists. Tune into WEQX.com this Sunday night to hear music from Cassandra Kubinski, Hamilton Craig, Lucas Neil, and many more!

    EQXposure

    WEQX has long been the preeminent independent station in the Capital Region of New York, broadcasting from Southern VT to a ever-expanding listening audience. NYS Music brings you a preview of artists to discover each week, just a taste of the talent waiting to be discovered by fans like you.

    Casandra Kubinski – “Stardust”

    This Saratoga Springs artist has quite the impressive resume. This song was produced by Chris Sclafani who was an engineer on hit songs by Ed Sheeran, Selena Gomez, and Gwen Stefani. She’s recorded and/or performed with the Goo Goo Dolls, 10,000 Maniacs, Jull Sobule, Dickie Betts, and many others. Her songs have been used in ABC, NBC, and Lifetime shows including Dance Moms where her music was used 13 times while helping to raise tens of thousands of dollars for causes like Autism support and pet rescue. Oh, and here’s what Billy Joel has to say about Casandra.

    Cassandra Kubinski is very similar to the singer/songwriters of the late 70’s…proves that the genre (singer/songwriter) can still be transcendent.

    Billy Joel

    The official music video for “Stardust” was shot in Boulder, CO in July and is expected to be released in September.

    Hamilton Craig – “Skin Disease”

    This singer/songwriter is from Shushan, NY and has played mainly in the Troy small venue and house show scene. He draws inspiration from “outsider music, the eccentric and naïve stylings of fringe figures excluded from the musical mainstream. He tries to inject the free-spirited ethos of such musical mavericks as Wesley Willis and Daniel Johnston into a more accessible pop format.” Be on the lookout for his new EP, recorded with Rick Spataro of Florist, which should be out by the end of this month.

    Lucas Neil – “Wild Winds”

    He is a 23 year old independent musician who is currently living the van life in Rhode Island. He grew up in Saratoga Springs, New York and is the son of Jeffrey Johnson who was the drummer of a group called The Make who toured along the east coast through the mid to late eighties. Lucas believes The Make first got radio play on WEQX. If so, he says it’s fun to follow in his dad’s footsteps. If not, it’s probably fun anyway. Regardless of whether or not his dad got played on EQX first, keep an ear out because he says the best is yet to come.

  • 2020 Woodstock Film Festival Embraces Hybrid Format

    Updated: 9/27/2020

    The Woodstock Film Festival 2020 has released the lineup for feature length premieres being showcased at this year’s festival. LOS HERMANOS/THE BROTHERS, WOODSTOCK TUVAN STYLE, ZAPPA, and BEHIND THE STRINGS are four music-related films that will be premiering at the festival. Click on the movie titles below to view a synopses and diretor’s bio for each film.

    LOS HERMANOS/THE BROTHERS (Drive-In) – World Premiere with live musical performance!
    THE HUMAN FACTOR (Drive-In) – East Coast PremiereWOODSTOCK TUVAN STYLE (Drive-In) – World Premiere
    JACINTA (Drive-In) – New York Premiere
    LORELEI (Drive-In) – US Premiere
    A CALL TO SPY (Drive-In) – New York Premiere
    DEAR MR. BRODY (Drive-In) – New York Premiere
    THE DRUMMER (Drive-In) – World Premiere
    ZAPPA (Drive-In) – New York Premiere
    KENNY SHCARF: WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (Drive-In) – East Coast Premiere
    WHAT BREAKS THE ICE (Drive-In) – World Premiere
    WILDFLOWER (Drive-In) – World Premiere
    FREELAND (Drive-In) – New York Premiere
    THE SIT IN (Drive-In) – New York Premiere
    ASKING FOR IT (Drive-In) – East Coast Premiere
    HORSE LATITUDES (Online) – North American Premiere
    MODEL (Online) – New York Premiere
    PAPER SPIDERS (Online) – New York Premiere
    COMING CLEAN (Online) – New York Premiere
    BEHIND THE STRINGS (Online) – World Premiere
    BARBARA LEE SPEAKS FOR ME (Online) – East Coast Premiere
    SURGE (Online) – East Coast Premiere
    THE PUSHBACK (Online) – East Coast Premiere

    Organizers of the 21st Woodstock Film Festival announced that this year’s festival will be brought to fans through a combination of drive in showings and online viewings. Starting September 30 at 9 a.m. est., the festival will run until October 4 at 11 p.m. est.

    A full lineup of films will be featured at the Greenville Drive-In Outdoor Cinema in Greenville along with the Overlook Drive-In in Poughkeepsie. Other area drive-ins are also slated to participate in this year’s film festival along with special events planned for Woodstock itself.

    Woodstock Film Festival

    The premier independent film festival will be inclusive of those that would prefer to stay at home by offering films for online viewing complete with Q&A sessions with the filmmakers. According to the press release, attendees can also expect a conversation series with members of the film industry. Filmmakers will still be able to attend a modified Maverick Awards ceremony and networking opportunities online.

    “We are all going through challenging times, and challenging times call for innovative approaches. I am thankful that recent advances in contemporary technology, along with the reinvigorated nostalgia for the classic American drive-in have made it possible for us to continue supporting outstanding independent cinema, while offering new and returning audiences alike the opportunity to experience excellent films in safety and comfort.”    

    Woodstock Film Festival Co-Founder and Executive Director Meira Blaustein

    Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, changing direction became the only course of action in order to keep everyone involved safe. The Woodstock Film Festival offices have been closed since mid-March and all in person events were cancelled.

    The Woodstock Film Festival has continued to provide stellar content, shifting programming to online platforms. Provided to the public free of charge, the spring calendar included; live conversations with industry luminaries, notable directors and actors, as well as a curated selection of films with introductions from their filmmakers.

    Individual tickets for films and events at the drive-ins and online will be made available beginning of September, while passes for either the full online film portion of the festival, the full online panel series, or both, are available for purchase now HERE.

  • Beau Fleuve Music & Art Festival Announces 2020 Lineup

    Beau Fleuve Music & Art Festival announced it’s 2020 Lineup for it’s 4th annual festival. The festival will take place on August 30 from 10AM-8PM and will be held virtually this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

    Beau Fleuve Music & Art Festival takes place at City of Buffalo and celebrates all genres of music, arts and culture. The festival strides to be unique and trendsetting while  bridging the gap between generations, communities and cultures. This year’s festivities will be a mixture of live, pre-recorded, and interactive content featuring some of Wester New York’s favorite artists, musicians, curators, and community stakeholders. Annual Beau Fleuve Music & Arts Festival  might be on the virtual screen this year but it will continue it’s traditions of an all day celebration exhibiting a “Mind, Body & Soul” Concept utilizing our platforms to speak to the state of our community, society and self.

    The festival will start at 10AM with an interactive art gallery called the “La Maison Des Arts.”  Throughout the virtual art gallery attendees can literally walk through and purchase art from Western New York’s finest artist. Gallery will feature paintings by artists and visual content. At 12PM there will be a yoga session called the “Yoga Fleuve.”. Attendees will be led by certified yoga instructor Taminka Jones as she guides you through a mental elevation to be liberated and conscious. Rounding in at 2PM the “Buffalo Then & Now” discussion will take place. These discussions will be amongst Buffalo & Western New York Community Stakeholders on the current state of our society, Buffalo past & present, arts community and more. At 4PM there will be the Black Art’ appreciation section titled “Black Art.” The festival is bringing Buffalo and Western New York’s black community to the table to talk about the appreciation for black art & artists, its influence, disparities, and more. At 6PM there will be a performance/ visual art exhibit by Edreys Wajed aka Billy Drease Williams called “Check out my melody?” Wrapping up the festival at 8PM there will be a performance by Curtis Lovell featuring Naila Ansari called the “Night with Beau Fleuve.” 

    Beau Fleuve Music & Art Festival can be attended via their social media platforms on Instagram and on Facebook.

    For more info visit Beau Fleuve Music & Art Festival’s website.

  • ‘Racism on Trial,’ featuring Denzel Curry and Kamasi Washington, meshes Rap, Jazz and BLM

    Jammcard — a social marketplace for music professionals — along with Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, partnered up earlier this summer to present the Black Power Live virtual music festival. Musicians including Terrence Martin, Kamasi Washington and Denzel Curry took part in the event, which gathered 1.7 million viewers via live stream on Twitch. Now they are releasing the powerful three-movement “Racism on Trial.”

    Black Power Live was centered around the current social-political climate, with police brutality, systematic oppression and black empowerment being focus points. Each part of “Racism on Trial” begins with a slam poetry type of setting where Florida rapper Denzel Curry recites his work, accompanied by a jazz ensemble. 

    RACISM ON TRIAL

    “Racism on Trial” follows Martin’s recent album Gray Area – Live at the JammJam, featuring the song “For Free?,” which Terrance wrote with Kendrick Lamar. The album was released on Jammcard Music in partnership with Sounds of Crenshaw and Empire Distribution. Recorded at Studio A of United Recording, packed with 300 Jammcard members surrounding the performers, the album is filled with some of the most exciting and powerful jazz music created in years. The performance features Ronald Bruner Jr., Kamasi Washington, Maurice “Mobetta” Brown, Ben Wendel, Paul Cornish, and Joshua Crumbly. 

    All proceeds from “Racism on Trial” will go to Crenshaw Dairy Mart, Trap Heals, Transgender Law Center, Sankofa.org, and Black Men Build. 

    The first movement, titled “The Voice of King Nipsey,” begins as Curry walks up to the mic and performs his verse in silence. He starts by articulating all variety of horrid things that happen in the United States. After he is finished, a Terrence Martin saxophone solo follows with Kamasi Washington and the rest of the band later joining in. 

    For the second movement, “Any Day Could be Your Last,” we again see Denzel opening up with a poem without the aid of background music, as he descriptively lists things he wants out of life. He ends his poem with the title of the feature, with the band once again following up, only this time, on a more somber note, with added vocals from Los Angeles singer, Alex Isley. Her vocals meshing with the jazz music, as well as added visuals of scenes from the civil rights movement.

    The third movement, “Pig Feet,” being the last installment once again begins with Denzel Curry but without a poem, just an intro. The band immediately starts playing and more visuals of police brutality through the years get run throughout the concert. Denzel Curry does end up rapping with the band as his background beats and he is joined by battle rappers Daylyte and G Perico. 

    Written by the trio of Terrence Martin, Kamasi Washington and Denzel Curry, Racism on Trialwas directed by Devin DeHaven, mixed by Manny Marroquin and engineered by Ethan Mates. Denzel Curry, Daylyte, G Perico and Alex Isley served as vocalists, while Kamasi Washington played saxophone, Marlon Williams the guitar. Terrence Martin, Robert Glasper, Paul Cornish played the keys, Trevor Lawrence Jr. and Jonathan Pinson were on the drums, Allakoi Peete on percussion, Dominique Sanders on upper brass, Paul Cartwright and Yvette Devereaux played the violin, Molly Rogers on the viola and Peter Jacobson on the cello.

    All proceeds from the sale of “Racism on Trial” will go to Crenshaw Dairy Mart, Trap Heals, Transgender Law Center, Sankofa.org, and Black Men Build.

  • Drug Couple Releases Psychedelic EP ‘Choose Your Own Apocalypse’

    Brooklyn-based musical duo Drug Couple has released their sophomore EP Choose Your Own Apocalypse via Papercup. The EP draws inspiration from classic rock greats, like the Rolling Stones, Liz Phair, and REM, exploring finding that someone special to spend the end of times with.

    Choose Your Own Apocalypse

    A real life couple, as well as creative duo, Drug Couple’s music showcases the ongoing dialogue they’re engaged in, and the spirit of deep collaboration that colors their songwriting as well as their lives at home together. The pair released their debut EP Little Hits in November of 2019, establishing their unique brand of “off-kilter indie” (The Deli).

    Their sophomore EP, Choose Your Own Apocalypse, is a collection of songs about finding someone special to share the end-times with. They started writing and recording the EP back in the summer of 2016, as events were leading up to the election of Donald Trump. Drug Couple decided to make an album based around the concept of falling in love mid-apocalypse without fully realizing that’s exactly what they were doing. 

    A meditation on the idea of holding on tight to love during the worst of times, the album (as well as their recently released single “Protest Song”) proved to be oddly prescient, written long before 2020 turned out to be one of the scariest and most trying years in recent memory.  Drug Couple hopes that their clairvoyance wasn’t causal, though they’d be lying if they said they didn’t feel partially responsible for the disintegration of the very fabric of our society. 

  • Hearing Aide: “Nueva Guitarra” by Harvey Valdes and Álvaro Domene

    And now for something completely different. Two New York-based guitarists, Harvey Valdes and Álvaro Domene, come together for an ear-opening album of nine deliciously deviant duets. It’s an ever-evolving, sonic tornado that is part free jazz, ambient somatic, mournful acousticity, industrial noise and the most searing, dark brand of heavy metal thunder – Nueva Guitarra.

    Álvaro Domene

    Madrid-born, Kingston-based Álvaro Domene is not only a most formidable and original guitarist; he’s a tireless advocate for the creative music scene in the Hudson Valley and beyond.  His Singularity Concert Series has brought many renowned musicians like guitarists Ben Monder and Elliot Sharp for intimate performances at his Kingston loft.  Since 2013, his co-owned Iluso Records has released over two dozen discs featuring some of the most fearlessly composed and improvised music you’d even want to spin.  As with this album, Domene continues his habit of keeping some heavy company, recording and performing regularly with the likes of Joe McPhee, Karl Berger, Henry Kaiser, Ches Smith, Michael Bisio, Billy Martin and many more. 

    Like Domene, Brooklyn-based Harvey Valdes is another guitarist (and oud master too!) for whom genre boundaries have little meaning.  His three solo albums have encompassed the radical reshaping of jazz standards (“Roundabout”), Mahavishnu-esque jazz fusion fury meets math rock  (“PointCounterPoint”) and the 18 concise solo guitar compositions of his latest, “Solitude Intones Its Echo,” mixed and mastered by sonic guitar innovator David Torn (David Bowie). 

    “Nueva Guitarra” is not designed for the faint of heart and that’s a very good thing. 

    The duo make their uncompromising and delightfully madcap intentions known in the album opener, “A Crooked Odyssey.”  It’s a sonic assault of tapping, looping, glissandos, drones, whammy dives and frizzled corrupted guitar signalry, a mad ride to the mountain top that only let’s up with a soothing ambient cloud appearing in the last 45 seconds of the six-minute outing.

    The best place to start your listening might be with the two solo pieces, which showcase the players’ varied approaches and signature sounds. 

    Valdes’ “Zealous Reflections” is a chord and melody exploration, with close voiced dissonances alternating with pleasant resolutions that he lets ring out. “Biomimicry” is Álvaro Domene swinging for the fences. It’s all quicksilver, speeded up melodies over noisy pads, loops and thumps, over under upside down signals, otherworldly whammy bar and harmonizer torture.  A noise jazz industrial racket of the highest order, from the bastard son of Buckethead and Albert Ayler. 

    My personal favorites, and maybe the easiest for the noise jazz newbie to dip into, are “Lady Dog Night Terror” and the album closer, “The Sophist Pundit.” 

    “Lady Dog Night Terror” emerges quietly from the darkness.  Its deep warm volume swells from Domene’s rise to surround and complement Valdes’ clean chording and single note lines.  Slowly, the dissonance in the melody and backdrop increases.  It gets symphonic and fuzz laden, then slowly slips away just after the four minute mark. 

    https://youtu.be/p0idBsB0z6Q

    With “The Sophist Pundit,” the duo saved the best for last. This is a summary statement of all the ideas set before, spread over nearly nine and a half minutes of guitar hellacious. 

    The track begins with stutter stop phrases looped to create a variable pulse, over which the duo improvise jagged lines.  It just gets more intense as it goes on, with the duo creating a wall of feedback looped upon feedback, punctured by siren calls and squeals designed to melt your preconceived notions of what guitars can do.

    All musicians have been hit by COVID-19, but not many have as hard as Domene.  He battled the ailment all through the spring, but still managed to ready this and other collections for release. 

    If you want to do a good deed for music kind, and vastly widen your own appreciation of music and the creative possibilities still left in the guitar, download this uncompromising disc.

    Key Tracks: Lady Dog Night Terror, The Sophist Pundit, Biomimicry

  • Taylor Swift Spills “Cardigan” Secrets, Releases Bonus Track “The Lakes”

    Sure to delight English teachers everywhere, Taylor Swift has released a literary analysis of her “Cardigan” music video. A Vevo Footnotes exclusive, the singer long known for her hidden Easter eggs revealed them all at once. She also shared how she prevented the song from leaking, a rare feat for a pop star of her stature.

    The video begins in a dark cottage, with Swift sitting at a piano containing a C. S. Lewis-style magical woodland inside. Two pictures are hanging on the cottage walls, both of which she explained to Vevo Footnotes. The man in the photograph on the left is her grandfather, Dean, who landed on the beaches at the Battle of Guadalcanal in World War II. Later on in the album, Taylor tells his story on “Epiphany.” As for the painting of a white house on the right, Swift worked on it herself in the first week of quarantine. Also, the clock’s hands point to 1 and 3, representing her famed lucky number, 13.

    Taylor Swift Cardigan

    Swift wrote and directed the video herself, playing the song solely through an earpiece so the crew wouldn’t be able to hear it during filming. Highly discreet about the entire project, she didn’t add the “folklore” logo to the central piano’s fallboard until release day via special effects.

    Taylor Swift Cardigan

    Speaking on the album as a whole, Taylor said, “I view Folklore as wistful and full of escapism. Sad, beautiful, tragic. Like a photo album full of imagery, and all the stories behind that imagery.” Of course, “Sad, Beautiful, Tragic” is also a song from her 2012 album Red.

    In addition to spilling the secrets of “Cardigan,” Taylor released a lyric video for Folklore’s bonus track, “The Lakes.” The song references Romantic poet William Wordsworth, and partially grapples with being a public figure in the social media age. The themes and lyrics mirror those explored in her 2017 Reputation album, except softer and less embittered.

    “Cardigan” is the first single off of Swift’s eighth studio album Folklore. Both the single and album debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts to critical acclaim, with praise citing their lyricism, atmosphere, and mature direction. Folklore, including “The Lakes,” is now available for streaming on Spotify and Apple Music.